Syllabus

A list of topics covered in the course is available in the calendar.

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 3 sessions / week, 1 hour / session

Labs: 3 sessions / week, 1 hour / session

Tutorials: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session

Attendance

Since much of the course involves hands-on and interactive lessons, attendance is essential. Active participation in the demonstrations and laboratory exercises is expected. You will be working in groups of two and it is expected that both partners in each group contribute equally to the effort required in building and testing circuits.

Homework

Assignments are handed out and are due as listed in the schedule. Late assignments will not be accepted. You are encouraged to work together on these, but the final written solutions must be your own work. For the grade, the best 8 out of the 10 homeworks will be used. Copying someone else's homework is a serious breach of ethics. Some questions in the exams and final will be taken from the homework problems.

Laboratory

The hands-on laboratory experience is an integral part of the course. We will use brief demonstrations and short experiments every class period. Most demonstrations and all experiments will be built and run by the students working in groups of two. In addition we will be devoting a few classes for more extensive laboratory work. All of the labs will involve the use of virtual instruments so that students can become familiar with data collection and analysis. Every lab will include a series of questions. These questions must be handed-in at the end of the class. In addition, there will be two extensive labs with required write-ups that are due as indicated in the schedule. You are encouraged to work together on these, but the final written report must be your own work. Copying someone else's work is a serious breach of ethics.

Quizzes

There will be three, two-hour long, closed book quizzes on the following dates:

Quiz 1 in Lec #10

Quiz 2 in Lec #19

Quiz 3 in Lec #27

Obviously quizzes will be worked out on your own and any infractions will be handled by the Committee on Discipline.

Final Exam

A three hour closed book final exam will be given during the exam week. Timing and room assignment for the exam will be announced later. Obviously the final exam must be worked out on your own and any infractions will be handled by the Committee on Discipline.

Grading

Grading will be based on the following weighting: